The Ultimate Travel Guide For One Of Portugal's Best Cities

Even as it retains its intimate, old-world appeal, Porto, Portugal's second city, is undergoing a renaissance with a new generation taking a hands-on approach to energizing the culinary scene, nightlife, and more

Porto

Porto

It might be surprising to step into a chic Porto boutique and find the shopkeeper knitting intently behind the cash register. No, you haven't traveled back to the 1880s—and she's not merely passing the time. It's more likely that she is not only the shop's owner but also the head designer, busily replenishing inventory because loopy crocheted accessories have become the look of the season.

Such a homespun image may not sound very 21st century. But all across Porto, Portugal's second-largest city and the birthplace of port wine, the future is looking like a revitalized version of the late-19th-century Arts and Crafts movement. The city that gave its name to the fortified wine that became one of the first global brands has gone back to its homegrown mercantile roots.

Enological analogies notwithstanding, Porto has always had a vintage feel. The historic heart of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretches along the hilly northern banks of the Douro River right before it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The city could double as the set for a Verdi opera, with an imposing cathedral and grand palaces perched high on a hill while, below, a few elegant spires, domes, and turrets pierce the undulating blanket of the red tile roofs of fishermen's houses. And, like a stage set, the whole panorama seems to have been condensed into an improbably picturesque vertical perspective that literally tumbles down to the river's edge. Breathtaking bridges—including Gustave Eiffel's Maria Pia railway bridge, now decommissioned—soar across the river gorge high above the city to link it with Vila Nova de Gaia on the Douro's southern bank, where the famous wine is aged in musty, centuries-old "lodges," awaiting either tippling or exporting.